As much as they had seemed to control the game from the opening tip, they could not pull away. They kept building leads. The Jazz kept rallying back.

By the fourth quarter, another lead was gone. The Jazz seemed poised for one of those familiar finishing kicks, when everything seems to roll for them on this site of so many Rockets nightmares. Yet, with another lead gone, the Rockets put together another run, and this time, they kept on running until they rolled to a 23-point lead and cruised in for a 113-96 rout Monday of the Jazz.

"It’s huge, a huge win for us," said Rockets center Chuck Hayes, who had 10 of his 12 points in the first half to help set a tone for the night. "They’re probably top in the league every year as far as homecourt advantage. To come in and get a win is huge, and probably how we played is more impressive than the win itself."

The Rockets did it by accomplishing almost everything they wanted. With Luis Scola getting 15 rebounds, they outrebounded the Jazz, 46-28, and outscored them, 13-6, in second-chance points, by far their best night on the boards in the early season.

They got out on the break, scoring 24 fast break points. Most of all, they moved the ball until they found enough open shooters to hit half their 84 shots, 52.6 percent of their 3s, and to get eight players in double figures, led by Aaron Brooks’ 19 points and nine assists.

"I thought we had the best ball movement we’ve had all year," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "We had 29 assists. It could have been a lot more. Guys moved the ball. When you get that, eight in a (scoring) range between 10 and 19, that’s a pretty balanced team."

That all came together in the fourth quarter, when the Jazz had taken an 80-79 lead with a 12-4 run to end the third and start the fourth quarters, and with Andrei Kirilenko draining a deep jumper at the buzzer with the sort of shot that usually triggers a Jazz blitz.

That’s when the Rockets bench suddenly took over. With Chase Budinger providing the fourth-quarter jolts he has throughout the early-season games, scoring 10 of his 17 points in four minutes, the Rockets surged to a 12-point lead with 6:20 left.

The Jazz, however, had rallied every time the Rockets had seemed to be pulling away. They outscored the Rockets 23-8 in the final two minutes of the previous quarters, keeping the game tight.

This time, the Rockets would not give them that chance. Shane Battier drained a 3-pointer to take the lead to 15, and Kyle Lowry put in another 3 for a 102-84 lead with five minutes remaining.

"It’s huge. It’s just huge," Adelman said of the contributions off the bench. "We need everybody. It’s not going to be one or two guys for us. Everybody who plays has got to contribute. Tonight was one of those games.

"We had that one surge there in the fourth quarter. The biggest difference was we didn’t stop there. We maintained. We expanded the lead. That’s the difference. They get going. It’s a tough place to win. They come at you. They made their run and we responded and it was a huge road win."

The only negative in any of that for the Rockets came with 3:44 remaining when they led by 16 and Jazz fans had begun a stampede for the exits. Budinger turned his left ankle and had to leave the floor. He limped his way back, but did not return to the game. He said later he was not concerned the problem would linger.

Even less certain was whether he could really know how significant the older Rockets considered the win.

"Anytime you win in Utah, it’s a special event," Battier said. "Not many teams do it. Kyle Lowry was saying it was his first win ever here. We had to tell the young guys and David Andersen, ‘Savor this.’ It doesn’t happen very often that you can come in to (EnergySolutions Arena) and win."

Maybe they were better off not knowing. On Monday, they spent the game as if it would just be a matter of time, but not until the Jazz made one of their usual runs, but until the Rockets finally put it away.